History Series / WaywardPines

* AffablyEvil: [[spoiler: David Pilcher, to the point that how much he is "evil" is questionable. Pam also becomes a ''whole lot'' nicer to Ethan after TheReveal, [[TookALevelInKindness and it's gotten to the point where how much she is evil nowadays is also questionable. And bluntly, less psychotic than in the books.]]]]

** [[spoiler: The members of the LaResistance count, considering all they want is to escape the town and go back home. Now that wouldn't really be a villainous act if the outside world wasn't filled with murderous genetic monstrosities that could swarm in and kill the whole town as soon as they breached the gate. You could say they're more ObliviouslyEvil than anything else.]]
** [[spoiler: David Pilcher]]. The man was genuinely trying to save humanity at one point, and is the only reason that mankind survived at all.

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Sheriff Pope at the end of episode 3.]]
** [[spoiler: David Pilcher in the season finale.]]

* BackForTheDead: This may as well be the subtitle for season 2. [[spoiler: The entire season 1 main cast with the exception of Adam Hassler is dead by the sixth episode of the season]].
** [[spoiler: Ruby and Kate]] are both established as members of the resistance and then killed off in the premiere (the former by execution, the latter by suicide). [[spoiler: Ben]] is set up to be a major player this season as the ''leader'' of the resistance, and is killed off in his second episode not having accomplished much of anything. [[spoiler: Nurse Pam]] appears solely in episode 3 and is dead by its end. [[spoiler: Theresa]] technically appears in multiple episodes but doesn't really ''do'' much of anything before being anticlimactically killed off and forgotten about.
* TheBadGuyWins: David Pilcher [[spoiler: explicitly says that it doesn't matter if he dies, as long as his ideals and legacy does. Which is exactly what happens, with his First Generation taking over and deifying him]].

** She moves away from this trope and softens considerably after TheReveal, becoming somewhat of an ally to the Burke family, and displaying genuine concern for Ben in particular when [[spoiler: Amy's condition worsens]]

* DeadStarWalking: [[spoiler: Several. Juliette Lewis' character is killed off at the end of the second episode. It seemed that Sheriff Pope was being set up to be the first BigBad, played by Terrence Howard and all. Nope, dead by the end of episode 3.]]
* {{Deconstruction}}: Of TheConspiracy and the OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness. They come across as Complete Monsters, but only because the "heroes" aren't actually aware of their motives. The truth is far [[GreyAndGrayMorality murkier]], and LaResistance nearly [[spoiler: causes the extinction of humanity.]]
* DistantFinale: The final few minutes of the first season are one. In contrast to [[spoiler: the seemingly optimistic ending and talk of building a new society, the new Wayward Pines is even more draconian]].
* TheDogWasTheMasterMind: [[spoiler: Remember the friendly old psychiatrist Doctor Jenkins? Turns out he's David Pitcher, mastermind of Wayward Pines.]]
* DownerEnding: The first season ends with one. [[spoiler: Ethan [[HeroicSacrifice dies protecting the citizens from the Abbies]], and his son is knocked unconscious and wakes three years later. Pam's talk of rebuilding humanity with kindness and warmth turns out to be for nought, as Jason and the rest of Class One storm in and take over, turning Wayward Pines back into the StepfordSmiler dystopia it was at the beginning of the season. Pilcher was killed, but Jason has erected a statue labeling him as a visionary, and since he had already stated that he would have won as long as his ideals lived on, he becomes a posthumous KarmaHoudini.]]

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: One possible side effect of learning the truth about Wayward Pines. [[spoiler: Apparently for those too stuck in the 'old ways', and find the truth to be [[DrivenToSuicide depressing]].]]

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: After Kate watches Adam Hassler's ApocalypticLog, she realises that her actions were going to cause more harm than good, and stops her plans to breach the fence for good.]]

** In the last season 1 episode, Pam and Kate decide they're going to try to resume the project more optimistically (i.e. less facistically) than Pilcher had. In the next scene, [[spoiler: Ben wakes up after what we discover was three years. Jason's group had stormed the facility right after the previous scene, frozen all the adults, and re-established the police state community with Jason as the sheriff and bodies hung from lampposts with warnings not to try and leave]].

** [[spoiler: The fate of all the adults at the end of Season One once the brainwashed teens take over.]]

* ItCanThink: The Aberrations show a surprising degree of intelligence in several scenes. [[spoiler: One involved knocking out the emergency generator after Pilcher cuts the power and plunging the hospital into complete darkness. After the humans chase them off with flamethrowers, the Abbies pretend to leave, then attack the farmers and burn the crops, before gathering a horde outside the wall, likely content to wait out the few months that it will take for the humans to starve to death. Additionally, MRI scans of a female Abbie's brain reveals that she is actually quite intelligent. Later, "Margaret" is able to escape after watching Theo enter the combination to the cell in a reflection. She has also observed enough to know to cut Megan's legs, guessing that Megan's paralysis would prevent her from noticing the damage until she has already bled out. During the manhunt, she also effectively turns the panicky humans against one another and leads them on a false trail]].

* NecessarilyEvil: Seemingly the justification for the cult-like mentality of the town and the harsh punishment for seemingly minor infringements. [[spoiler: After all, if you're going to keep the last group of humans on Earth safe, you need to be able to keep dissent at a minimum.]]

* Really700YearsOld: Everybody in the town once it's revealed that it's really [[spoiler: the year 4028.]]
* OpenSecret: A variation: As of episode 7 the number of people who have heard the truth about Wayward Pines is increasing, and assuming [[spoiler: Kate's shared it with the rest of the Resistance]] every main character knows...the number of them who believe it, however, is substantially lower...
** [[spoiler: After Season One, it's a secret no more.]]

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: [[spoiler: In season 2, Theresa finds Ben's body outside the wall, although she already knew that there was no way he could have survived there. She pretty much loses the will to live at that point, which is just as well, since she is among the victims when the Abbies return]].

* SmugSnake: Nurse Pam [[spoiler: [[CharacterDevelopment to start off with]]]] and Sheriff Pope. Jason even moreso, whose smugness gets him [[spoiler: a bullet to the gut]].

** Actually a BaitAndSwitch. The promotional materials, and most of the first episode, give the impression that this will be a SpiritualSuccessor to Series/TwinPeaks. At the end of the first episode you find out the real inspiration: [[spoiler: ''Series/ThePrisoner'']].

** ...and episode 5 transforms the show into an inverted ''[[spoiler: Series/TerraNova]]'', with a touch of [[spoiler: ''Film/TheVillage'']].

* TeenageWasteland: [[spoiler: What the town becomes at the end of Season One, after the indoctrinated "First Generation" takes over and freezes the adults again.]]

* WallAroundTheWorld: Wayward Pines is surrounded by a high-voltage fence keeping the more curious folk inside. [[spoiler: It also serves to keep the aberrations outside from eating the last of humanity]].
* WasOnceAMan: [[spoiler: The Aberrations are predatory things that are now the dominant creatures in the wild, but they were once human at some point in time.]]

* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: David Pilcher. He exerts a tyrannical hold on the town only because he doesn't want the people knowing the real state of the world, as he told the last group before them and they didn't take it well, either killing themselves or trying to escape the fence into the Aberration infested wilderness. No prizes for guessing [[EatenAlive how that ended.]] On the other hand, Season 2 flashbacks reveal that it was Pilcher who started this whole mess with the Abbies in the first place. Upon waking up, he finds a promitive settlement and Abbies and refuses to accept that they're humanity's future. He slaughters the Abbies outside the Ark and has the town and fence built in their place. No wonder they've been hostile to humans ever since]].

** Episode 5. [[spoiler: We learn that the year is 4028 and that the inhabitants of Wayward Pines are the last remaining humans in existence, with the rest of the population having been wiped out by feral monsters called "aberrations".]]
** Episode 10. [[spoiler: Ben has been in a coma for over four years. In that time, all of the adults have been put back into cryogenic sleep by the children, who have taken over the town in the name of their saviour, David Pilcher.]]

-->'''Dr. Fisher:''' This is not [[spoiler: the year 2014. It is the year 4028.]]
** In the finale, Amy's line that [[spoiler: "they're listening" is one as it proves that Pam's goal of creating a Wayward Pines with freedom and no surveillance has failed miserably]].
* WhamShot: In "The Truth", Ben is handed an old coin and asked to examine it. When he does so, he discovers that it is a quarter [[spoiler: from the year 2095.]]

** [[spoiler: One of the [[LaResistance resis]][[AntiVillain tance]] members finally manages to get past the fence, despite both attempts at bombing it foiled, and as he collapses exhausted with his dead friend, who he wants to bury, he is ambushed and devoured by a pack of Aberrations.]]
** [[spoiler: The ending of Season 1 also gives off this. After surviving a swarm of Abbies that wipe out the town and kill half the populace, as well as depose Pilcher, who's devolved into a madman, [[AxCrazy Jason]] [[TeensAreMonsters and his group]] take over, put all the adults in stasis and take over as the new, just as draconian leaders of Wayward Pines, effectively reversing almost everything back to the twisted hellhole it was.]]

* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: [[spoiler: After killing Sheriff Pope, Ethan Burke is promoted next episode to Sheriff.]]

Probably best-described as ''Series/{{Lost}}'' [[XMeetsY meets]] ''Series/TwinPeaks''. The trailer for season one can be watched [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmFPf7I0Jlc here.]]

!Tropes appearing in this series include:

* [[spoiler:AfterTheEnd:]] [[spoiler:Ethan discovers that outside of Wayward Pines, humanity has degenerated into a mutated, feral state.]]

* BattleaxeNurse: Nurse Pam, in a major way. She's just missing the hat from being a clone of the TropeMaker, [[OneFlewOvertheCuckoosNest Nurse Ratched]].

Wayward Pines is a 2015 American television series, based on the novel ''Pines'' by Blake Crouch. The series started airing in May 2015. It's executive produced (and the pilot was directed) by Creator/MNightShyamalan, and stars Matt Dillon, Creator/CarlaGugino, Creator/TobyJones, Shannyn Sossamon, Creator/ReedDiamond, Tim Griffin, Charlie Tahan, Creator/JulietteLewis, Melissa Leo and Terrence Howard.

U.S. Secret Service agent Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon), investigating the disappearance of two federal agents in a small Idaho town, is caught in a car crash on the way there. Waking on the roadside bloodied and dazed, Burke wanders down the road for help, and learns he's in the titular Wayward Pines before collapsing from his injuries. Leaving the hospital shortly afterwards, Burke starts to notice not everything is as it seems: the residents behave strangely, Ethan encounters roadblocks in his investigation everywhere, and, most bizarrely of all, he seems unable to leave the town...

Probably best-described as Series/{{Lost}} meets Series/TwinPeaks. The trailer for season one can be watched [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmFPf7I0Jlc here.]]

* AfterTheEnd: [[spoiler:Ethan finds out that the human civilisation outside of Wayward Pines has almost completely been wiped out, with most of humanity having degenerated into a mutated, feral state.]]
* AgeLift: Ben. He's 11 as of the third book but 16 at the start of the series.

* ApeShallNeverKillApe: One of Pilcher's rules is that no First Generation shall harm another First Generation. [[spoiler:Jason breaks that rule in season 2 by exiling Ben, knowing that he'll be killed by Abbies. Then again, Jason doesn't consider Ben to be a true First Generation, since Ben wasn't born in the town]].

* BackForTheDead: This may as well be the subtitle for season 2.
** [[spoiler: Ruby shows up]] only to be executed instantly.
** [[spoiler: Ben was woken up at the end of the last season, only to have a bridge dropped on him very quickly]].
** [[spoiler: Nurse Pam, last shown getting frozen at the end of the first season, shows up in the third episode just to die]].

%%** [[spoiler: David Pilcher]]

Wayward Pines is a 2015 American television series, based on the novel ''Literature/{{Pines}}'' by Blake Crouch. The series started airing in May 2015. It's executive produced (and the pilot was directed) by Creator/MNightShyamalan, and stars Matt Dillon, Creator/CarlaGugino, Creator/TobyJones, Shannyn Sossamon, Creator/ReedDiamond, Tim Griffin, Charlie Tahan, Creator/JulietteLewis, Melissa Leo and Terrence Howard.

* SurpriseIncest: Near the end of season 2, it's revealed that [[spoiler:Kerry]] is [[spoiler:Jason]]'s mother (neither of them knew).

* TyphoidMary: [[spoiler:Pam returns in season 2 in order to inject herself with smallpox and then infect the rest of the town, having decided that the whole idea of Wayward Pines was a mistake. She's stopped before the virus incubates in her body. Jason then kills her, and her body is burned]].

* AnyoneCanDie: As of this point, [[spoiler:the following primary characters are dead: Ethan (blows himself up to keep Abbies from killing everyone), Ben (exiled by Jason and killed by Abbies), Kate (slits her own throat to avoid living in this future), Pilcher (shot by Pam), Pam (killed by Jason for trying to destroy the town), and Theresa (mortally wounded by an Abby and expires in the hospital). Near the end of season 2, Kerry kills Jason during a GunStruggle]].

* TeenPregnancy: [[spoiler:Encouraged by the new leaders of Wayward Pines, since most of the adults have been frozen. In fact, kids are outright pressured into this with step-by-step instructions on how the baby-making process is supposed to work]].

* AnyoneCanDie: As of this point, [[spoiler:the following primary characters are dead: Ethan (blows himself up to keep Abbies from killing everyone), Ben (exiled by Jason and killed by Abbies), Kate (slits her own throat to avoid living in this future), Pilcher (shot by Pam), Pam (killed by Jason for trying to destroy the town), and Theresa (mortally wounded by an Abby and expires in the hospital)]].

* ItCanThink: The Aberrations show a surprising degree of intelligence in several scenes. [[spoiler: One involved knocking out the emergency generator after Pilcher cuts the power and plunging the hospital into complete darkness. After the humans chase them off with flamethrowers, the Abbies pretend to leave, then attack the farmers and burn the crops, before gathering a horde outside the wall, likely content to wait out the few months that it will take for the humans to starve to death. Additionally, MRI scans of a female Abbie's brain reveals that she is actually quite intelligent]].

* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler:Adam Hassler turns out to be the only one of his party to survive the scouting trip to San Francisco, the rest being hunted down and killed by Abbies. He eventually makes his way back to Wayward Pines but is haunted by his experiences]].

* YouAreAlreadyDead: [[spoiler:Megan]] feels faint and notes a puddle of blood near [[spoiler:her]] feet. [[spoiler:She realizes that someone has slit the back of her legs, which she didn't feel because of her lower body paralysis. She has just enough strength to turn around and see the female Abbie standing with a scalpel and realize that she had freed herself by watching Theo enter the combination to another cell]].

* AffablyEvil: [[spoiler: David Pilcher, to the point that how much he is "evil" is questionable. Pam also becomes a ''whole lot'' nicer to Ethan after TheReveal, [[TookALevelInKindness and it's gotten to the point where how much she is evil nowadays is also questionable.]]]]

* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler:We're not given any hints as to how human civilization has come to an end between 2014 and 4014 until partway through season 2, when flashbacks provide some clues. There are news reports of massed North Korean refugees, an epidemic of a new strain of the flu ([=H1N3=]), massive explosions, contaminated water, etc. Mitchum also mentions bombs falling like rain and poison]].

* [[spoiler:ApocalypseHow]]: [[spoiler:We're not given any hints as to how human civilization has come to an end between 2014 and 4014 until partway through season 2, when flashbacks provide some clues. There are news reports of massed North Korean refugees, an epidemic of a new strain of the flu ([=H1N3=]), massive explosions, contaminated water, etc. Mitchum also mentions bombs falling like rain and poison]].